Atlassian Issues Zero-Day Patch  

Atlassian, one of the world’s leading digital work specialists, is in the news for issuing a new security patch. The patch pertains to a zero-day vulnerability that is considered to be critical. Each of the supported versions of the company’s Confluence Server and the Data Center products is vulnerable unless patched.

What has Atlassian Stated About the Vulnerability?

Though Atlassian representatives did not provide a considerable amount of information about the zero-day vulnerability, they noted it is a bug of the RCE variety. Additional details about the weakness are not being revealed until a lasting repair is made. Atlassian customers can use the company’s issue tracker page for additional information about the bug noted above. It will also help to upgrade digital defenses.

Atlassian representatives have gone as far as noting the presence of an injection vulnerability pertaining to Object-Graph Navigation Language that permits unauthenticated attackers to run code on affected Data Center or Server Confluence products.

What is the Role of OGNL in the Vulnerability?

OGNL is a Java object Expression Language. OGNL is open source, meaning members of the programming community can modify it. OGNL empowers Apache Strut EL expressions that can be used within certain applications within enterprise spaces. OGNL has been tied to vulnerabilities, possibly as a result of the Struts 2 framework that is dependent on it. Hackers can inject OGNL expressions to transmit harmful Java code. No user interactions or privileges are necessary for the vulnerability’s exploitation.

What is the Patch all About?

Atlassian’s Confluence workspace patch helps mitigate the chances of targeting in the wild actually succeeding. The patch addresses the zero-day weakness that provides online miscreants with unauthorized RCE privileges. RCE is short for remote code execution.  

The security patch is especially important as it is applicable to a vulnerability with a maximum of 10 out of 10 CVSS scores. According to Atlassian’s latest security advisory, the weakness in question exists in each of the Confluence Data Center and Server versions of 1.3.0 and beyond.

What Should Atlassian Customers Do?

Atlassian customers are advised to add the patches right away. Atlassian’s digital security brass has gone to great lengths to make its customers aware that the vulnerability in question is significant and can lead to harmful exploitation. Atlassian customers will find it interesting to note that the United States Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has added vulnerability to its Vulnerabilities Catalog. The agency has requested that federal agencies stop all traffic from Atlassian’s products in question. Furthermore, the agency has even asked that federal agencies apply the update to the software or eliminate access to the products by June 5. 

Atlassian also responded with an update to its issue tracker page. It gave more information about the different versions of Confluence Data Center and Server products and their respective fixes. However, the fixed versions also require the latest update to prove effective against the threat.  

Atlassian’s public relations team also noted that the vulnerability in question does not compromise the company’s Cloud sites, meaning customers using Confluence through a .net domain that is hosted by the company will not be susceptible. There has not been any evidence found of Cloud exploitation. Those who are unable to perform the upgrade are advised to use Atlassian’s temporary workarounds for specific versions available within the security advisory.